Web filter developers get death threats

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-24 17:11

ZHENGZHOU: The head of a software company in central China's Henan Province said Wednesday that his company had been harassed by hacker attacks and threat calls because of its controversial product - the Internet filter software "Green Dam".

Zhang Chenmin, general manager of Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co based in Zhengzhou City, which won the bid to develop the "Green Dam-Youth Escort" last year, told Xinhua that his company has had more than 1,000 harassing calls and even death threats since early this month.

The threats came after the Chinese government announced it would have all new computers in the country pre-installed with the "Green Dam" filter software packages.

"Most of the calls came at late night, cursing our staff and uttering obscenities, voicing their resentment against the software," Zhang said. "These calls were from both home and abroad."

He said that the personal information of some "Green Dam" programmers had been released on the Internet.

"I got a call last night, threatening to kill my child and my wife," Zhang said.

He also said Jinhui's website has been continuously under hackers' attack, which has seriously affected the company's customer service.

"We are now under great pressure and our company has been at a critical moment," he said. "I never expected the software to have brought us so many troubles. Our aim is simply to protect children from Internet pornography."

He said Jinhui, which was founded in 1997, has been devoted to research in the field of online porn filtering technology.